Dr. LaRocca’s research focuses on different forms of programmed cell death in eukaryotic cells. Programmed cell death is the controlled death of eukaryotic cells in response to specific, external stimuli or internal cellular damage. This type of cell death is not random or accidental but rather depends on defined cell signaling, occurring in an orchestrated manner. Several different programmed cell death pathways exist but apoptosis and the more recently discovered necroptosis are the major pathways with each serving as backups to one another. Dr. LaRocca focuses on the balance between apoptosis and necroptosis and is interested in identifying different stimuli and conditions that favor one form of programmed cell death over the other with the hope that this will reveal important molecular switches that control this balance. There are currently three broad projects in Dr. LaRocca’s lab that focus on programmed cell death. One project explores the effect of hyperglycemia (high glucose concentrations as in diabetes) on apoptosis and necroptosis and how this condition may shift the balance of programmed cell death. Another project aims to define programmed cell death pathways activated in response to a broad group of bacterial virulence factors called pore-forming toxins. This project also aims to explore differences in programmed cell death in response to different pore-forming toxins. The third project is a continuation of Dr. LaRocca’s previous discovery of necroptosis in human erythrocytes (red blood cells, RBCs). As RBCs are quite different from the rest of the cells in humans (they lack nuclei and mitochondria) it is of interest to explore the mechanism of this pathway in RBCs and its outcomes compared to necroptosis of nucleated cells.
